Snowlight Chapter 9

 

Chapter 9

‘Good heavens, what’s going on?’

 

‘If the lady of the house finds out, she’ll be furious.’

 

The servants watching from behind the gate whispered among themselves. The old woman, who had snatched the letter from the mother’s hand, sighed and replied.

 

‘The young master has gone to the palace on official business. He won’t be back until late tonight, so it’s difficult to see him right now. Please come back another time.’

 

‘Then, may I wait here until the young master returns?’

 

She must have known it was a veiled refusal, yet she answered that she would wait steadfastly, and the old woman clicked her tongue in exasperation. It is truly fortunate that the lady of the house has gone to her parents’ home for her postpartum confinement.

 

She was a woman who looked to be no more than twenty-three at most. If she were to hurl insults at her and chase her away, it would only lead to unnecessary gossip in the marketplace. It was better to pretend not to notice and turn a blind eye.

 

So she sternly ordered the servants to lock the gate and keep their mouths shut, and even the young servants coming and going paid them no mind. And so, they had been standing helplessly outside the tightly locked gate, waiting for several hours now.

 

It was getting dark. The fine snowflakes were heavy with moisture, and his forehead and cheeks were soaked. It was sleet.

 

‘Mom, let’s just go home.’

 

Yu Won tugged at his mother’s hand and whined. Even though he had finally arrived in the capital he had only heard about, he wasn’t happy at all. The passersby were all cold and unfeeling, and they often whispered and giggled when they saw him and her mother.

 

‘My dear, just hold on a little longer. Okay?’

 

‘But…’

 

Yu Won pouted and hung his head. He hadn’t eaten anything since the bowl of cold porridge he’d been given that morning, so he was starving. And that wasn’t all. Having walked for half of the past ten days, his feet ached as if they were about to burst, and his eyelids felt heavy.

 

It wasn’t just Yu Won who was exhausted. During the journey to the capital, his mother hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep. Her clothes were thin, and the only thing protecting her from the cold was an old scarf. Yet his mother hadn’t complained once. If the head monk had seen her, he would have been deeply distressed.

 

‘I want to go back.’

 

He wanted to return to the mountain temple filled with birdsong. Then, missing the head monk, who had loved him like his own grandchild, tears welled up in his eyes.

 

He missed the head monk. He wished he could be held in his arms; he would warm him up the moment he mentioned feeling cold, but now that he had passed away, he could never see him again. Hearing his sniffles, his mother gently wiped the tears from Yu Won’s wet cheeks.

 

‘Let’s just greet your father. Then we’ll go home. Okay?’

 

‘When is father coming?’

 

‘Soon. He’ll be here any minute.’

 

He had heard the word “soon” countless times already. But instead of throwing another tantrum, Yu Won wiped his tears with the back of his hand and nodded quietly. He didn’t want to worry his mother, who was already anxious enough.

 

‘What a good boy.’

 

His mother wrapped the scarf he had been wearing around Yu Won’s neck. The scarf, imbued with his mother’s warmth, was as comforting as a hug.

 

His biological father, who had been wandering from place to place seeking a cure for an unknown illness, had come down to a mountain temple in the south for recuperation and met his mother there. After spending half a year together, just before he set off on his return journey, he gave a prenatal name to the child she was carrying, and that child was the Yu Won of today.

 

Born and raised at the mountain temple, Yu Won had never once seen his father. Whenever he asked why, his mother would comfort him by saying his father was too busy to come down to the temple. As a result, all that the young Yu Won knew about his father came from the few words his mother had shared.

 

‘Your father, you see, was a truly kind and wonderful man.’

 

Whenever she thought of her beloved, her face would glow with a radiance more beautiful than the blooming flowers of spring. Even to a child’s eyes, she was lovely, and it was clear that his father had fallen for her precisely because of that.

 

He wished his father would come back soon. He’ll surely be happy to see his mother. It’s been so long since they’ve seen each other.

 

A crescent moon rose in the pitch-black sky. The shadows cast by the wall made the surroundings even darker. As Yu Won huddled by the front gate to avoid the drizzling sleet, the flickering light of a lantern danced before his eyes.

 

In the distance, palanquin bearers were approaching, carrying the palanquin. Soon, a man dressed in a blue robe stepped down from the palanquin, attended to with practiced ease.

 

‘You’ve returned, Master.’

 

The old woman who had come out to greet them spoke respectfully. At that, his mother gripped Yu Won’s hand tightly. He could feel her mother’s cold, stiff fingertips trembling.

 

It was that tremor that finally convinced Yu Won. The man standing before him was the father his mother had spoken of so often. Would he be happy to see him? What kind of expression would he wear when he saw him? His heart pounded wildly with anticipation and excitement.

 

“She… she’s from Myeongnaesa Temple in Namwon. Even when we tried to send her back, she insisted on seeing the master and wouldn’t budge…”

 

The old woman, gauging her master’s expression, cautiously explained the presence of the mother and son standing by the gate. At that moment, his mother took a step forward.

 

The voice calling out “My Lord” was moist and yearning. Had she not traveled all the way from the southern provinces, with nothing but the clothes on her back, for nearly ten days, just to meet the one and only man she loved and the father of her child?

 

Only then did the man’s gaze turn toward her. His face, as elegant as a white plum blossom in spring, was filled with icy fury. Furrowing his well-groomed brows, the man looked at Yu Won, who was standing awkwardly behind her skirt. He stared intently at Yu Won for a long time before letting out a deep sigh.

 

‘I never thought she’d actually bear and raise the child.’ 

 

The muttered words brushed past his ear.

 

“It’s cold out here. Go warm up some wine.”

 

“Then what about them…?”

 

Despite the old woman’s question, the man entered the gate without a word. His mother reached out hastily, but she didn’t even have time to grab his sleeve. The old woman sighed and gave a nod to a servant, who brought a bowl of salt and scattered it liberally, as if to ward off evil spirits.

 

The gate closed. And it never opened again.

 

The heavy rain began to patter down, soaking their feet. After standing silently for a long while under the pouring rain, the mother grabbed Yu Won’s hand and turned to leave.

 

That day, Yu Won caught a cold. For ten straight days while he lay ill, his father never once came to visit. It was late winter when Yu Won was just five years old.

 

The Hong clan of Namyeong.

 

Even in Okyang, a gathering of the most prominent aristocrats, they were a renowned family of founding meritorious subjects, the very epitome of the yangban class, having served the dynasty and the nation with unwavering loyalty for the past three hundred years.

 

In this impeccable, distinguished family, Yu Won’s very existence was a stain on the clan’s honor.

 

Yu Won lived with his mother in a dilapidated thatched cottage in the most remote slum of the capital. It was a refuge provided by his biological grandmother, who, unable to bear the rumors circulating in the marketplace, had sent them away, warning them to keep a low profile.

 

“Oh my, how disgraceful. How could such vulgar creatures have moved in here?”

 

“Well, I heard she seduced a nobleman into an illicit affair and then had the nerve to show up at the governor’s residence. She’s nothing short of a vixen.”

 

“He must be blind not to see what’s right in front of him. The child takes after his mother; he’s incredibly tenacious.”

 

Whenever he and his mother ventured out, the neighbors’ whispers would pour down on them. To the villagers, the two were unclean and sacrilegious. Since the adults treated them with contempt, even the children of his own age inevitably followed suit.

 

“Did you see his eyes? They’re different colors. Ugh.”

 

“My mom heard at the market that his mother was a demon who used to live in the mountains. They say a mere demon seduced a decent man, and that’s how that monster of a child was born.”

 

They said he’d been born with eyes like this. Two irises of different colors. One was a pale blue, and everyone who saw it pointed and called him a monster. He could ignore the insults directed at him, but he hated hearing them aimed at his mother.

 

He hated his own face so much that he never looked at it properly. It must have been ugly and hideous, unlike his mother’s. That must be why he was treated that way. He thought that if he covered his face, maybe the insults would lessen, so he deliberately went around with his hair in a messy, disheveled state, but people’s attitudes didn’t change. The neighborhood kids would constantly mock him, calling him a “monster,” and they were always throwing stones or dog poop at him.

 

After a few years, the mockery became bearable. So what if he’s a monster? Even that monster had a home to return to and a mother. As long as he could live happily and peacefully with his mother, what did it matter? His mother was Yu Won’s teacher, his friend, and the world itself.

 

Until the day his mother collapsed, he had believed that this small happiness would last forever.

 

The illness that struck suddenly ravaged his gentle, kind mother. She could not even swallow a single wild strawberry, let alone rice gruel. At night, she moaned in fever, and not a single day passed without the sheets drying from her cold sweat.

 

“I’ve treated patients all my life, but this is a condition I simply cannot fathom.”

 

The doctor shook his head after taking her pulse. Perhaps it was a case of hwabyung, or a heavy heart. Even when he brought in renowned doctors, they all said the same thing. At best, they would prescribe some tonic to help her recover.

 

From that day on, his mother would lie awake every night, staring into the distance.

 

“Yu Won-ah, is it my husband who has come? I heard your father’s footsteps. My lord, my lord, you have finally come to see me.”

 

As the days she spent sobbing while searching for someone who would never come grew more frequent, it was often only by giving her sleeping pills that they could barely get through the night.

 

There was nothing he wouldn’t do to afford the medicine. If someone offered money, he’d take any job that came his way. He didn’t refuse anything, from tending to the latrines to running errands at gambling dens, so some people even exploited him without paying a penny.

 

Though his mother could not see, she could discern the efficacy of medicinal herbs simply by their scent. Having grown up under her guidance, Yu Won, even at such a young age, knew medicinal herbs as well as any seasoned herbalist.

 

And so, Yu Won roamed the mountains gathering herbs. He would boil some for his mother and take the rest to the pharmacy, where he could earn a small amount of money.

 

The pharmacy, which had been gaining a reputation by word of mouth, soon became famous. With customers flocking in from all over the country, the place was bustling with activity. The owner, who had once been stingy with even a few pennies, kept Yu Won on as a staff day and night instead of firing him. Even when the doctor tried to take credit for his work, Yu Won never complained. There was no better place than the pharmacy to find the exact herbs his mother needed.

 

And so, for five years, he spent his days boiling herbal decoctions at the pharmacy, scalding his hands in the process, and his nights gathering medicinal herbs until his fingernails wore down and his palms cracked.

 

On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, as sleet swirled through the air, a messenger arrived from the Four Great Gates.

 

The message was that Lord Hong Se Hwan, Minister of Personnel, was urgently seeking Yu Won.